It is quite likely, however, that the epistle of Galatians was written prior to the Jerusalem council, and that it refers to a meeting between Paul, Barnabas, and Peter, James, and John that happened earlier.

It is more likely that the epistle was written some time before the Jerusalem council, and that teachers came from Jerusalem to Antioch teaching the need for it after Paul wrote his epistle to the Galatians, churches from the first missionary journey, addressing this issue.

He is also traditionally associated with the Epistle of Barnabas, although modern scholars think it more likely that that epistle was written in Alexandria in the 130s.

The epistle concludes with a doxology, which is considered to be one of the highest in quality contained in the Bible.

Because this epistle is much shorter than 2 Peter, and due to various stylistic details, some writers consider that Jude was the source for the similar passages of 2 Peter.

* The traditionalist view that the epistle is written by Paul is supported by scholars that include Ezra Abbot, Asting, Gaugler, Grant, Harnack, Haupt, Fenton John Anthony Hort, Klijn, Johann David Michaelis, A. Robert, and André Feuillet, Sanders, Schille, Brooke Foss Westcott, and Theodor Zahn.

The Galatians appear to have been receptive to the teaching of these newcomers, and the epistle is Paul's response to what he sees as their willingness to turn from his teaching.

If this view is correct, the epistle should be dated somewhere around 47, depending on other difficult to date events, such as Paul's conversion.

" It is implied that this was different from his ordinary usage, which was simply to write the concluding salutation with his own hand, indicating that the rest of the epistle was written by another hand.

* Easton's Bible Dictionary, 1897: Epistle to the Galatians, commencing " The genuineness of this epistle is not called in question.

A second ground is that the epistle features a strong use of liturgical-hymnic style which appears nowhere else in Paul's work to the same extent.

The precise time at which it was written is not mentioned in the epistle, but it was obviously written when the collection for Jerusalem had been assembled and Paul was about to " go unto Jerusalem to minister unto the saints ", that is, at the close of his second visit to Greece, during the winter preceding his last visit to that city.

Scholars often have difficulty assessing whether Romans is a letter or an epistle:

It has nothing in common with the letter except its form: apart from that one might venture the paradox that the epistle is the opposite of a real letter.

The main purpose of the epistle to the Romans is given by Paul in, where he reveals that he is set apart by God for the purpose of preaching the Gospel, which he explains.

... this epistle is the principal and most excellent part of the new testament, and most pure evangelion, that is to say glad tidings and what we call the gospel, and also a light and a way in unto the whole scripture ...

The sum and whole cause of the writings of this epistle, is, to prove that a man is justified by faith only: which proposition whoso denieth, to him is not only this epistle and all that Paul writeth, but also the whole scripture, so locked up that he shall never understand it to his soul's health.

" The remark was addressed to the senator Andromachus by Gelasius in an extended literary epistle that was virtually a diatribe against the Lupercalia.

Thence, however, he continued to govern his diocese, while he found leisure for the preparation of two of the most important of his contributions to dogmatic and polemical theology: the De synodis or De fide Orientalium, an epistle addressed in 358 to the Semi-Arian bishops in Gaul, Germany and Britain, expounding the true views ( sometimes veiled in ambiguous words ) of the Eastern bishops on the Nicene controversy ; and the De trinitate libri XII, composed in 359 and 360, in which, for the first time, a successful attempt was made to express in Latin the theological subtleties elaborated in the original Greek.

bar-Hiyya's philosophical works, are (" Meditation of the Soul "), an ethical work written from a rationalistic religious viewpoint, and an apologetic epistle addressed to Judah ben Barzilai al-Barzeloni.

Alan Cameron notes that Cassiodorus and Boethius both refer to him as " Macrobius Theodosius ", while he was known during his lifetime as " Theodosius ": the dedication to the De differentiis is addressed Theodosius Symmacho suo (" Theodosius to his Symmachus "), and by the dedicatory epistle to Avianus's Fables, where he is addressed as Theodosi optime.

A Fig for Momus, on the strength of which he has been called the earliest English satirist, and which contains eclogues addressed to Daniel and others, an epistle addressed to Michael Drayton, and other pieces, appeared in 1595.

* The Holy Kiss is the greeting used in Apostolic Christian churches ( practiced as in German Baptist, Amish, and Mennonite churches ), based on the epistles of Paul and the general epistle of 1 Peter, which was addressed to members scattered throughout various nations.

Born at the château de Voisenon, in Voisenon, near Melun, he was only ten when he addressed an epistle in verse to Voltaire, who asked the boy to visit him.

* An apologetic epistle addressed to Judah ben Barzilai al-Barzeloni.

Two years later, Gratian was assassinated in Lugdunum, and Symmachus, now urban prefect of Rome, addressed an elaborate epistle to Gratian's successor, Valentinian II, in a famous dispatch that was rebutted by Ambrose, the bishop of Milan.

On 15 March 1682 Dryden brought out ‘ The Medal, a Satire against Sedition ,’ an attack on Shaftesbury, and on 31 March Pordage published ‘ The Medal revers'd, a Satyre against Persecution ,’ with an epistle, addressed, in imitation of Dryden, to his enemies, the Tories.

Upon the accession of Elizabeth I in 1558, he addressed a congratulatory epistle to her, refused a knighthood she offered him, and preached regularly at St. Mary's Church, Oxford.

The third epistle is addressed to a man named Gaius and mentioned as " a dear friend ".

He is generally credited with Quaedam proposita papae a rege super facto Templariorum, a draft epistle supposed to be addressed to Clement by Philip.

His politics were sufficiently evident in many of his works: a congratulatory epistle to Addison, in Protestant Popery ; or the Convocation ( 1718 ), an attack on the opponents of Bishop Benjamin Hoadly ; and in The Protestant Session by a member of the Constitution Club at Oxford ( 1719 ), addressed to James, first Earl Stanhope, and printed anonymously, but doubtless by Amhurst.

In the epistle dedicatory addressed to the king Montagu states his object to be to trace the origins of Christian faith and doctrine, and show that the Anglican position was derived from the ' ancient founts.

It must be noticed however that modern literary critics are now of the opinion that this epistle may have been addressed to his nephew ( mentioned below ) since it implicitly refers to a bad fortune.

There is extant a letter addressed to him by Isocrates, in which the rhetorician commends him for his good qualities gives him some very common-place advice, and recommends to his notice a friend of his, named Autocrator, the bearer of the epistle.

The epistle dissuades non-Jewish Christians from feeling a need to convert to Judaism.

This epistle addresses the question of whether Christians were obligated to follow Mosaic Law.

A number of verses in the epistle contain possible clues about the reasons Christians experienced opposition.

Elliott sees this as grounds to reject the idea that the epistle refers to official persecution, because the first worldwide persecution of Christians officially meted by Rome did not occur until the persecution initiated by Decius in AD 250.

Scholars who support this theory believe that a famous letter from Pliny to Emperor Trajan concerning the delation of Christians reflects the situation faced by the addressees of this epistle.

Paul the Apostle, in his first epistle to the Corinthians, argued that there is both secular and divine wisdom, urging Christians to pursue the latter.

Some of this epistle was written in response to a question from the Corinthian Christians regarding whether it was permissible for a Christian to eat food offered to idols.

" ( 2 Peter 3: 9 ) ----- though this passage is often interpreted by many Protestants as referring only to Christians, as the context of the epistle indicates that Peter's audience were believers, and the first half of the verse indicates that the promises of God to believers are not late but patiently enduring the unfolding of history as God sovereignly saves His own through time.